Friday, May 04, 2007

The National Surrender Party has now determined that Global Warming poses a national security risk and is planning on requiring that our already limited national intelligence resources be used to study the national security implications of global warming.

So, if I have this right, instead of watching Iran, or Osama, or any of the world's crackpots and dictators, the political party that boasts Al Gore, Hillary Clinton and Cindy Sheehan wants our national intelligence resources to focus less on real threats and more on imagined threats.

The House next week will consider the Democrat-crafted Intelligence Authorization bill, which includes a provision directing an assessment of the effects that climate change has on national security. Democrats, who outnumber Republicans on the committee, blocked the minority from stripping the warming language from the bill.

Intelligence panel Chairman Silvestre Reyes, Texas Democrat, said the climate-change study is one of several shifts his party has made to intelligence policy. "We're concerned that global warming might impact our ability to maintain national security," he told The Times, describing the idea as "cutting edge." "We want to get feedback from the intelligence community to understand if there are possible global issues," Mr. Reyes said, noting the change was on the advice of "several former military commanders." The panel voted 11-9 to keep the provision that directs a National Intelligence Estimate "on the anticipated geopolitical effects of global climate change and the implications of such effects on the national security of the United States," according to a Republican staffer familiar with the bill. The study, which so far has an undetermined cost, would examine the science of climate change, among other things. Few details about its method were available, but the staffer said it would "divert already scarce resources to study the climate." The staffer added that the U.S. already tried using intelligence resources for this purpose in the 1990s. "There are other parts of the government better suited to doing this type of study," agreed Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican. "Our government should not commit expensive spy satellites and human intelligence sources to target something as undefined as the environment."

I can see it now, deep in the heart of Cheyenne Mountain.

"Sir, one of our keyhole satellites had determined that the three Iranian kilo-class subs are about to try and enter New York Harbor. What should we do?"

"Have the satellite perform a three-second Delta V, to get in position to focus in on that gardener using a gas-powered weed eater on Fred Thompson's back yard."